As Press staff writer Becky Campbell reported in Sunday’s paper, half of all domestic violence offenses reported throughout Tennessee in 2012 involved family members. According to a study released by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, there were 662 domestic violence offenses investigated in Johnson City last year, with 307 being family related. In Washington County, there were 545 domestic violence offenses, and 372 of those were committed by a family member.The TBI report also found the victims are nearly twice as likely to be women who have been abused by a man. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says a crime of battering occurs every 15 seconds in the United States. More than 70 percent of the victims are women.Those figures confirm the findings of a World Health Organization study released last week. WHO researchers say about a third of women worldwide have been physically or sexually assaulted by a former or current partner.The report also says 40 percent of women killed worldwide were slain by an intimate partner.There are organizations that victims of domestic violence can turn to in time of need. One is Contact Ministries, which can be reached at 926-0144. Contact is a nonprofit volunteer-based telephone helpline ministry serving Upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.